New Dramatists Hosts A Spring Luncheon To Honor Roger Berlind 5/17

New Dramatists, Tony Honor® recipient and the nation's premiere playwright development workshop, proudly announces that 14-time Tony Award® winner Roger Berlind will be honored with their 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award at its 62nd Annual Spring Luncheon tribute, to be held Tuesday, May 17th at the New York Marriott Marquis. Philip J. Smith and Robert E. Wankel of The Shubert Organization serve as the Luncheon Chairs. Jim Dale, Emily Mann and Brian Stokes Mitchell will be among those paying tribute to Mr Berlind.

Each year, New Dramatists salutes an individual who has made an outstanding artistic contribution to the American theatre. Roger Berlind has been producing for more than 30 years. Recent productions include Copenhagen; Kiss Me, Kate; Proof; Medea; Anna in the Tropics; Caroline, or Change; Wonderful Town; Doubt; The History Boys; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Faith Healer; Deuce; The Year of Magical Thinking; Curtains; Rock ‘n' Roll, Is He Dead?; Gypsy; 13; Equus; Ragtime; A Little Night Music; and A Behanding in Spokane. This season he is represented by Arcadia, The Book of Mormon, Driving Miss Daisy, La Bête and Jerusalem.

"A great producer is a playwright's best friend, and Roger Berlind is a great producer," says Todd London, Artistic Director, New Dramatists. "You can look down the list of the projects he's supported to see that. They exemplify taste, intelligence, and a love of theatre. More, though, look down the list of the artists he's supported. That's the true mark of a producer--his relationships. And that's the true mark of Mr. Berlind: real partnerships with remarkable artists. He belongs in the front of that rare lineage, the gentleman producer."

Past luncheon honorees have included Julie Taymor, Horton Foote, Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, Chita Rivera, Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Glenn Close, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, Jerry Herman, Terrence McNally, Barbara Cook, John Kander & Fred Ebb, August Wilson, George C. Wolfe and Gwen Verdon.

The luncheon will be held at the New York Marriott Marquis (1535 Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets) on Tuesday, May 17th, beginning with a champagne reception at 11:15 AM and ending promptly at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $300 (a portion of which is tax-deductible). For tickets, call (212) 757-6960.

New Dramatists is dedicated to the playwright, and pursues a singular mission: to find gifted playwrights and give them the time, space, and tools to develop their craft, so that they may fulfill their potential and make lasting contributions to the theatre. Regarded as a national leader in playwright support and advocacy, New Dramatists has remained a pioneer in the field of new play development since our inception in 1949. We offer our company of 50 playwrights a home base and self-guided laboratory for seven years, free of charge, in the company of a gifted community of peers. New Dramatists' alumni include some of the most revered and influential playwrights of our time: Robert Anderson, Kia Corthron, Nilo Cruz, Horton Foote, Richard Foreman, Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, David Lindsay-Abaire, Eduardo Machado, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, John Patrick Shanley, Mac Wellman, August Wilson, Doug Wright, and many more. Current playwrights and alumni have won 16 Pulitzers (including 8 of the last 12), 24 Tonys®, 71 Obies, 17 Drama Desk Awards, 4 MacArthur Fellowships, and 12 Susan Smith Blackburn Awards.. New Dramatists itself is the recipient of a 2001 Tony Honor and a 2005 Obie Award, in recognition that our writers are, as our Tony put it, "blessing" the future of the American theatre.

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